This invention is in the field of means and methods for surface freezing carcasses.
There are presently difficulties in the usual, commercial handling of carcasses of this sort. One of the customary steps includes hanging the carcasses for a period in a chill room, or the like, within which the temperature is maintained at a relatively low value. Storage of the carcasses with body heat initially therein in the chill room results in a loss of moisture from the carcasses. This is a serious loss of sales weight. It is sometimes productive of carcass shrinkage to an extent producing distortion and an unattractive appearance. According to some methods of butchering the animal backbone is split and opened to expose the severed surfaces. If left in the carcass, which is usual, these may take on a dark or blackened hue which is quite unattractive to the purchaser. In addition, the loss of relatively warm carcass moisture tends to produce a corresponding condensation of the moisture on the ceiling and walls of the chill room. The accumulated condensate drips back onto the carcasses. This is an unsanitary and undesirable occurrence because any bacteria or contaminants on the ceiling or walls tend to deposit on the carcasses and to initiate extra deterioration therein. In fact, such conditions are frowned upon but necessarily tolerated by the official inspectors.
The carcasses usually have to be hung at a substantial distance from each other so that they do not actually touch, for at the touching areas under many conditions there is initiated deterioration in the meat.